A quote that turns up in Tom Robbins' latest novel at least a dozen times. Most people do not take humor too seriously and neither does Robbins. He just tries to highlight its importance in theory and in practice. The book introduces the reader to a pyramid-head shaped tribesman of South America, art girls of Seattle, a bunch of excommunicated nuns of Syria and finally to Vatican City.

If 30+ men drooling after teenage girls bothers you at all, do not read this book. Switters, the main character carries the training bra of his 16-year-old step sister sniffing it regularly. But Robbins is all about breaking taboos... is this one of the few left?

This book is technically beautiful and as usual each sentence is carefully crafted. At one point Switters is in a wheelchair in a convent... could this reflect Robbins' own feelings of being constricted or living in a world full of rules? I strongly recommend reading this book about taking things less seriously. As the old parrot says: